Musk – king of fragrances

Musk is a legendary fragrance that gives numerous perfumes their special scent. In addition, musk is a coveted natural product for Chinese folk medicine. But what exactly is behind the fabric? What does musk smell like and where does musk actually come from? And is synthetic musk harmful to health? We provide the answers to the most important questions about musk.

What is musk?

Musk is a fragrance produced in the musk sac – a walnut-sized gland – of the male musk deer. The substance is a dried, powdery and extremely smelly secretion that the musk deer use to attract females.

What does musk mean?

The word can be derived from the Greek “moschos”, from the Latin “muscus” or from the Persian “musk” and means testicles or scrotum. The musk pouch has been compared to this – but in fact musk is not extracted from the testicles of the musk deer.

The term is also used for secretions from other animals and plants that have a  musky scent  . The animals include the musk ox, the musk buck, the muskrat and the musk duck. In the case of plants, there are, for example, the jester flower, the musk mallow, the musk herb or the abelmosk.

How is the fragrance musk obtained?

Musk is produced naturally in the  musk gland of the male musk deer,  formerly known as the musk deer.

Until the late 1970s, this  real musk was also  used to make perfumes. However, this is no longer allowed for animal welfare reasons. Many musk deer had to give up their lives to obtain musk – a musk gland only contains about 30 grams of the secretion. Even today, the musk deer is threatened with extinction.

Therefore, musk nowadays comes from a  synthetic production. In addition, artificial musk can be produced quite cheaply, whereas the natural product is extremely expensive.

There are essentially four types of synthetic musk:

• Tonkin Musk from Tibet and China
• Russian Musk
• Assam or Bengal Musk from India
• Bukharan Musk

There are a total of around 1,000 substances whose smell is similar to musk – but only around 30 of these are used as musk substitutes.

Musk scent: What does musk smell like?

Both as a natural secretion and in its synthetic production, musk has a bitter,  animalistic  scent on the one hand and a  radiantly sweet scent  on the other. The typical odor description characterizes the animal musk scent with leathery, hair and urine-like scents.

Musk as a perfume

Musk plays a particularly important role in perfumes. Although the fragrance usually only occurs as a subnote, it is contained in almost every perfume. Musk should never be consciously perceptible, as too much of it is perceived as an obtrusive body odor. A light musk scent gives many perfumes a warm character, strengthens the scents and rounds them off.

In addition, the human skin absorbs musk very well, so that the smell of perfumes with musk lasts for a long time – musk serves as a so-called fixative here. The musk smell can also be combined well with other scents such as patchouli or ambergris.

Musk scent: effect

Musk perfume or musk oil creates a  feeling of warmth and security in people on the one  hand, but also sexual excitement and  sensuality on the other.

Responsible for this are certain  aphrodisiac components  of musk, which are structurally  similar to pheromones  . Pheromones are a secretion exuded by vertebrates to influence the behavior of other individuals of the same species, for example in the mating process.

Depending on the combination with other scents, musk can produce different effects. In combination with other fragrance components, musk can have the following effects:

• erotic
• cheering
• relaxing
• or even concentration-enhancing

By the way: musk has an  attractive effect on men.  Surveys have shown that in addition to fresh perfumes, men also like scents with a musky, spicy or woody note on women.

Certain Musk perfumes have been specially developed for this erotic effect and attraction.

Is Synthetic Musk Harmful?

There are now numerous detergents, cleaning agents and cosmetics that contain synthetic polycyclic musk compounds. However, these artificially produced substances are not biodegradable and accumulate in human fatty tissue. Therefore, the cosmetic use of musk is controversial. Some synthetic musk compounds are even banned within the European Union. These include musk ambrette (ambrette) and the nitromusk compounds musk ketone and musk xylene. While the former can have a damaging effect on nerves and genetic material, the latter trigger allergic reactions.

Due to the poor degradability, artificial musk substances can only be partially removed from the wastewater in sewage treatment plants. For these reasons, researchers are looking for healthier and more environmentally friendly musk substances.

It is not easy for consumers to identify products containing polycyclic musk compounds as these do not have to be labeled on the packaging. They therefore usually only appear under terms such as “aroma” or “perfume”. The synthetic musk is sometimes referred to by the manufacturers as “galaxolide” or “celestolide” when specifying these ingredients more precisely.

Musk in medicine

The demand for natural musk still exists today, because in Chinese medicine musk is still considered an antispasmodic, nerve-strengthening and invigorating panacea. Musk is said to be able to help particularly with cardiovascular, nervous and respiratory problems. Musk is also said to be conducive to potency.

Musk also came to Europe with the Crusades, where the scent gained notoriety as an aphrodisiac.

The Musk Deer

It has long been assumed that the deer-like looking musk deer are relatives of deer, which is why they were also called musk deer in the past. However, there are some significant anatomical differences: in contrast to deer, musk deer have a gallbladder, and the musk deer also has elongated upper canine teeth, but no antlers. And, of course, the musk gland is the crucial difference between the two animals.

Musk deer live in herds, are herbivores and are predominantly native to forested mountain areas in southern Asia, especially in the Himalayas – they are already extinct in Europe. Musk deer are good climbers to get at leaves and twigs.